The Monogram Club, former West Seattle High School lettered varsity athletes providing scholarships to new alumni there met at Salty's on Alki Thursday, Aug. 2, for a special luncheon. They recognized two citizens. Each, you might say, beat the odds, Kayla Burt and Joe Epler.

Kayla Burt

Guest speaker Kayla Burt is an Alki resident and former UW Huskies basketball leading scorer. At a small get-together at her home, she went into cardiac arrest and was clinically dead, shortly before New Year's Eve, 2003. Her heart stopped for five minutes.

Luckily she had eight teammates over, hanging out for the holiday. At 11:23 p.m. she was sitting down on her bed, then collapsed face down. Her eyes were rolled in the back of her head. She was purple and seemed lifeless her pals recalled. Two performed CPR.

Paramedics shocked her out of ventricular fibrillation and into a normal sinus rhythm. She lay in a coma for 15 hours at UW Medical Center. Six days later she had an ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) placed in her chest to shock her heart back to a normal rhythm. Doctors still do not know the cause. Her daily routine involves exercise, including basketball, biking, and running.

"I have a story of surviving sudden cardiac arrest when I was a college athlete at UW," she told the West Seattle Herald. "It's great to be here today, around so many inspirational people who have led the way for a lot of other people, like this 101 year-old man, still kicking it."

She pointed to Joe Epler.

"I was a guard," she said of her basketball position. "Being a lefty I played left wing a lot."

She graduated in 2006 with a communications degree. She was an Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach at the University of Portland, an EMT in South King County, and then worked in the Valley Medical Center ER as a Medical/Surgical Technician. She is an Outreach Coordinator at The Hope Heart Institute.

"I don't think in a million years I would have imagined myself doing the work I do now but the reality of my life has taken me down this path," she revealed. "Now, I can't really imagine doing anything else and it has given me a platform to raise awareness for other people."

Ask Kayla Burt about the Olympics and she lights up.

"Oh my gosh," she enthused. "I am completely enthralled by the Olympics. I've been loving it."

She said she loves living on Alki, too, adding, "I am always out there on the beach throwing Frisbee, playing volleyball, long-boarding. You name it."

Joe Epler

Joe Epler attended with his wife, Marion, also 101 years old. They reside in the Ida Culver House Broadview, on Greenwood Ave. N.

"I bought my first car in 1928," recalled Joe, alert, smiling, and with a twinkle in his eyes. "It was a used, '25. You could get a car in those days for a hundred bucks. I can still picture it, but can't remember the name. It's no longer a car that's made.

"I knew Frances Farmer," he said. "She was in a couple of my classes. I remember her well in typing class. She was athletic, too."

Farmer's mother was known to doll up the future famous actress with colorful, slightly over-the-top outfits for high school.

"She was always a little bit outstanding," he said of his soon-to-be-famous classmate. "You knew something was going on. Maybe some of us thought she was overdressed but I don't think she was.

"I was in the first Boeing class, in 1929 and '30," he said. "It was a class on aviation."

His family moved from the Alaska Junction to Leschi.

"My dad was a chief engineer on a ship. But I was the only one working in the family when I got out of school. Things were tough during the Depression. I had a job at the Leschi Grocery and Market store. And that was pretty handy because we got a chance to have access to food, vegetables. Since I had the only job in the family I wasn't going to go to college."

He served in the Marine Corp Aviation, and trained young pilots to fly at the beginning of WWII. He would eventually fly a private plane he co-owned, kept in a hanger at Boeing Field.

"I was a firefighter starting in 1936," Epler said. "The engine I first drove had hard tires, chain drive, no windshield, and you'd drive on the right."

And Marion?

"We met 80 years ago and have been friends all our lives," he said. He knew her father, and uncles, in the fire department. "But we didn't get married until 15 years ago."

The Monogram Club's scholarship program has continued since the club began in 1965 and has awarded nearly 200 scholarships. To become a member you must have lettered in a varsity sport at West Seattle High School at least 50 years ago.

The Monogram Club is looking for new members. If you or someone you know qualifies and would be interested in joining, please contact Bob Bruck, (206) 938-3582. His email: bob.bruck@comcast. net